MotoGP 2016: Marquez back to winning ways at Aragon

Marc Marquez of Repsol Honda takes his first win since Sachsenring, ahead of Movistar Yamaha pair - Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

Marc Marquez has strengthened his lead in the 2016 MotoGP championship as he took a dominant win at Aragon today. Joining Marquez on the rostrum was the Movistar Yamaha duo of Jorge Lorenzo (2^nd) and Valentino Rossi (3^rd).

Despite starting from pole, Marquez could not quite manage to get a perfect launch, which meant he was sandwiched between Lorenzo and Maverick Vinales around the tight first corner of the circuit at the start. Marquez, however, sliced his way up to the first spot within two laps. Albeit, his lead was cut short by an early scare as the Repsol Honda rider nearly lost the front-end of his bike. Although Marquez saved the crash, he lost 4 positions to Vinales, Lorenzo, Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso.

For the next few laps, Marquez maintained his cool – while also giving his hard front-tyre enough time to warm-up. Rossi saw this as an opportunity to break away from Marquez. In the next few laps, Rossi overtook Lorenzo and Vinales – with a bit of a dogfight with the latter - to lead the race. Meantime, Marquez also put the hammer down and got ahead of Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Vinales literally handed over second spot to Marquez as the Suzuki rider went off the track while defending his position.

Marquez quickly dismissed Rossi, and put some blistering lap times to get away from the Italian. Lorenzo, on the other hand, got a new found rhythm in the closing laps – he first fended off Vinales and then passed his bitter teammate. Rossi, however, did not allow Lorenzo to move out of his sight. With three laps to go, Rossi made a hasty move on his teammate, which saw the Italian overshoot the corner before eventually running wide. Rossi lost three seconds around there, handing over second place and some valuable championship points to Lorenzo.

Vinales finished the race in fourth. LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow managed to take the fifth spot while Misano winner Dani Pedrosa came sixth. Aleix Espargaro of Suzuki grabbed seventh ahead of his brother Pol Espagaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) in eight. Gresini Aprilia riders, Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl, managed to finish within points as they were ninth and tenth, respectively.

With 248 points in his kitty, Marquez now leads the championship by a comfortable 52 points from Rossi (196 points). Lorenzo is only 14 points behind Rossi at 182. The next round is in Japan at the Motegi circuit.

2016 MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix (25/09/2016)
MotorLand Aragon Circuit – 5.085km, 17 turns